1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information recording and reproducing apparatus and, more particularly, to an information recording and reproducing apparatus which records information on an optical disk such as a CD-R or a CD-RW after formatting the optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is an optical disk recording apparatus which manages a blank packet in a track on an optical disk so as to quickly seek for the blank packet so that a recording time or a reproducing time is reduced when a packet recording or reproducing is performed on the optical disk. Such an optical disk recording apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.9-288883.
Recently, a recordable compact disk (CD-R) and a rewritable compact disk (CD-RW) have become popular as a compact disk on which information or data can be recorded by a user. In the CD-R disk system, recording can be performed only once on the same recording area. In the CD-RW system, recording can be performed many times on the same recording area by overwriting.
Each of the CD-R disk and the CD-RW disk has an absolute time in pre-groove (ATIP). The ATIP is a groove formed on a recording surface of the disk so that time information and disk information is recorded by a so-called wobble of the groove in accordance with an ATIP format.
When a recording or reproducing operation is performed on a CD-R disk or a CD-RW disk, a reading position or a writing position can be detected by the time information, and an intensity of laser beam for recording can be determined by the disk information.
A minimum unit of information reproduceable from the CD-R disk or the CD-RW disk is referred to as a block. A single block can contain an amount of information corresponding to 2,048 to 2,352 bytes.
A minimum unit of information to be recorded on the CD-R disk or the CD-RW disk is referred to as a packet. A single packet includes at least one user data block which stores information to be reproduced. The single packet also includes five link blocks preceding the user data block and two link blocks (run-out blocks) following the user data block. The five link blocks consist of one link block and four run-in blocks. A number of user data blocks in a single packet is referred to as a packet length.
As a method for recording information or data on the CD-R disk or the CD-RW disk, there is a track-at-once method and a packet write method.
According to the track-at-once method, a single track is recorded all at once by a single packet. At most 99 tracks can be recorded by a single packet. Information regarding a start address and an end address of a track is recorded in a separate area on the disk such as a program memory area (PMA) or a table of contents (TOC). A pre-gap consisting of 150 blocks or 225 blocks is provided in front of each track so that attribute information regarding a track such as a packet length of a fixed track is recorded in a user data field provided in the pre-gap.
On the other hand, according to the packet write method, a track is divided into a plurality of packets so that a recording is performed on an individual packet basis. There are a fixed packet write method and a variable packet write method. In the fixed packet write method, a packet length is fixed to a predetermined value. In the variable packet write method, a packet length is variable.
A universal disk format (UDF) is one of the file systems using the fixed packet write method. The UDF is a file system in which recording, reproducing or erasing of data can be performed. The UDF is also referred to as a random UDF since the UDF can record, reproduce or erase information randomly on an individual packet basis. In the UDF, in order to enable such a random access to the CD-RW disk, a disk must be formatted before use.
In the formatting operation, an entire recording area or a designated recording area of the CD-RW disk is filled by fixed packets. By performing the formatting operation, a recording, reproducing or erasing operation can be performed on an arbitrary recording area of the CD-RW disk.
However, the above-mentioned formatting operation has a problem in that a formatting operation takes a long time to fill the fixed packets in the entire recording area or the designated recording area. The recording capacity of the standard CD-RW disk is 650 Megabytes which corresponds to 74 minutes in recording time. Accordingly, in order to format an entire recording area of the CD-RW disk including recording of the TOC information, it takes about 40 minutes to format the CD-RW disk even when the formatting operation is performed at a double speed.
As mentioned above, according to the UDF, a recording, reproducing or erasing operation can be performed on an arbitrary area of the CD-RW disk after the CD-RW disk is formatted. However, when a user uses a blank disk which is an unformatted disk, the user must wait for about 40 minutes to start recording.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved and useful information recording and reproducing apparatus in which the above-mentioned problems are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide an information recording and reproducing apparatus which can reduce a time spent on an initial formatting operation performed on a rewritable recording medium such as a CD-RW disk.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, there is provided according to one aspect of the present invention an information recording and reproducing apparatus using a rewritable recording medium having a user data area, a track containing a plurality of packets is defined in the user data area by being subjected to an initial formatting process before use so that data is recorded in the user data area on an individual packet basis, the information recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:
easy formatting means for formatting a blank, rewritable recording medium without formatting the user data area so that only information regarding the track is recorded on the recording medium in accordance with the initial formatting process; and
position reading means for reading time information previously recorded on the rewritable recording medium, the time information representing position information in the user data area so that recording operation on the user data area is performed by referring to the time information.
According to the present invention, the user data area is not formatted when the initial formatting operation is performed. Since a time spent on the formatting operation performed on the user data area occupies a large part of a time spent on the initial formatting operation, the time spent on the formatting operation can be greatly reduced. A normal recording can be performed by determining a recording position on the rewritable recording medium by referring to the time information previously recorded on the blank, rewritable recording medium. Accordingly, a normal recording operation is started without formatting the user data area. Thus, when the blank, rewritable recording medium is used for recording for the first time, a user is not waited for a long time until the initial formatting operation is completed.
The information recording and reproducing apparatus according to the present invention may further comprise blank packet recording means for recording predetermined data in a blank packet contained in the user data area when the information recording and reproducing apparatus does not perform a normal recording or reproducing operation on the rewritable recording medium.
Accordingly, by recording the predetermined data in the blank packet after the initial recording is performed, the blank packet can be eliminated and the user data area is filled by recorded packets. The thus-recorded rewritable recording medium can be reproduced by a conventional reproducing apparatus such as a CD-ROM drive which determines a reproducing position by referring to position information which is recorded when data is recorded in the packets.
Additionally, the information recording and reproducing apparatus according to the present invention may further comprise a buffer storing an address of a last packet in which data is recorded, and wherein the blank packet recording means records the predetermined data in only a blank packet located on an inner side of the rewritable recording medium with respect to the address stored in the buffer.
Accordingly, the recording operation by the blank packet recording means is not performed on a blank packet which is not subjected to a reproducing operation. Thus, a time spent on the recording operation by the blank packet recording means can be reduced.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the rewritable recording medium may be a CD-RW disk, and the easy formatting means may format only a lead-in area, a program memory area and a pre-gap area of the CD-RW disk.
Additionally, there is provided according to another aspect of the present invention a method of recording a rewritable recording medium having a user data area, a track containing a plurality of packets is defined in the user data area by being subjected to an initial formatting process before use so that data is recorded in the user data area on an individual packet basis, said method comprising the steps of:
formatting a blank, rewritable recording medium without formatting the user data area so that only information regarding the track is recorded on the recording medium in accordance with the initial formatting process;
reading time information previously recorded on the blank, rewritable recording medium, the time information representing position information in the user data area;
recording data in the user data area on an individual packet basis by referring to the time information; and
recording predetermined data in a blank packet contained in the user data area when a normal recording or reproducing operation is not performed on the rewritable recording medium.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.